Student Policy Handbook
some of this is cosmetic, some of this is substantive
There's some back and forth here about registering for high school (at the Parent Information Center or high school)...
Cell phones...used? Banned? Confiscated if found?
Advanced Placement classes weight given to college classes taken for credit.
There's also some talk around who takes AP and what they have to do to get in.
There's an excused/unexcused absence question (should we make a distinction?)
Boone says we have "an issue with grading in this city...too many variations on grades...too many subjective opportunities...at an appropriate time, I will be coming back to the School Committee with some issues we're uncovering regarding grading"
Homework: grades "on whether kids know and can do something", rather than strictly attached to how they do homework (Mulqueen)
AP: course cannot be altered, "how do we move to greater numbers of students across a greater number of diverse groups...barriers are set up at courses to be completed, grades to be included..having the door opened wider to include them...PSAT assessments may include"
Mullaney: "shocked...the very notion that you would take grades out of consideration" in deciding whether a kid comes into AP...."Dr. Boone says we have a grading issue; that's the first I've heard of it...fraught with a philosophy I do not share...I care about how hard a kid works and wants to work"
Boone: "this conversation is a perfect example of the perfect example of the challenges of the standing committee format...that's not a negative statement in terms of what anyone has said...committee of the whole...we need as a governance team...we need to spend more time together in work sessions, so we all have the same backdrop of education...our sole purpose here is not to....as the African-American in this room, I do not believe in anything being given to any child because of race, ethicity or socio-economic status" Using things other than grades. PSAT as "AP potential" "broaden the language to allow other valid assessments"
(we're getting a few parents in here now)
(posting now...this is still going...)
2 comments:
WPS wants to make opportunities for AP classes less exclusionary/more inclusive. Are there extra seats in the AP classes or will someone need to decide between a child who is accepted under the old policy, vs. child who is accepted under less exclusionary/more inclusive policy?
Are high school teachers getting laid off?
back in the day, a student could prepare on their own in an honors or general english class and take the AP test if they could afford the fee for the test. Is this still the case?
I think there are enough seats to go around, plus WPS has gotten a grant to expand AP classes.
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